EUROPE'S RAILWAYS HAVE A BRIGHT FUTURE IN FREIGHT

Rail freight in Europe has a positive future, but needs mutual cooperation between European railways to achieve its maximum competitive advantage. The total volume of European freight traffic is expected to double by 2015; it will need to be met by using all transport modes and finding the most environment-friendly and resource-efficient solutions. As a freight mode, rail has the advantages of low land usage for infrastructure, energy-efficiency, low environmental impact, safety, and suitability for large flows over longer distances. Although rail now has a 15% share of European freight traffic, this share could fall to 5% by 2005 if current trends continue; this anti-rail trend is especially strong in Eastern Europe. Rail freight has previously suffered from poor train paths, reliability, and punctuality, high prices, and inflexibility. European railways have made enormous efforts to raise productivity and attract more traffic, but they need to avoid increasing their losses as their freight volume rises. A large part of road freight traffic, especially for short journeys in urban areas, is unsuitable for transfer to rail. Regular scheduled bulk freight is the most likely form to succeed by rail. European Union (EU) Directive 91/440 has driven many initiatives now being pursued to increase rail freight in Europe.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13511599
• Corporate Authors:

  RUSSELL PUBLISHING LTD

  4 BOURLET CLOSE
  LONDON,   United Kingdom  W1P 7PJ
• Authors:
  • ERDMANN, M
• Publication Date: 1999-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 47,49
• Serial:
  • EUROPEAN RAILWAY REVIEW
  • Volume: 5
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: RUSSELL PUBLISHING LTD
  • ISSN: 1351-1599

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Energy conservation; Environmental protection; Freight transportation; Improvements; Industries; Legislation; Modal split; Organizations; Railroad transportation; Safety; Trend (Statistics)
• Identifier Terms: European Commission; European Union
• Uncontrolled Terms: Increase
• Geographic Terms: Europe
• ITRD Terms: 212: Energy conservation; 2444: Environment protection; 8303: EU; 8034: Europe; 741: Goods traffic; 9108: Improvement; 9032: Increase; 332: Industry; 1556: Legislation; 675: Modal split; 9057: Organization (association); 1173: Rail bound transport; 1665: Safety; 6515: Trend (stat)
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Freight Transportation; Law; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00768636
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Sep 10 1999 12:00AM